Scottish Parliament

Written Answers

Tuesday 31 August 1999

Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will respond to the concerns of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland relating to the transfer of lead ministerial responsibility for forestry from the Secretary of State for Scotland to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in London.

Mr John Home Robertson: Yes, we shall respond to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland by explaining that Scotland’s forestry interests receive Ministerial attention fully reflecting the relatively greater importance of forestry in Scotland. Policies on forestry in Scotland will be tailored to meet Scotland’s needs.

  While the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has overall responsibility for forestry issues that affect Great Britain as a whole, such as the control of forest pests and negotiations in the European Union, he will be required to consult Scottish Ministers on such matters. I have already met the English and Welsh forestry Ministers to discuss areas of mutual concern, and I shall ensure that our policies on these issues take full account of Scotland’s forestry interests.

Education

Shona Robison (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial provision exists to assist higher and further education students who become ill during their studies.

Henry McLeish: To be eligible for financial support higher education students must be attending a course. Students who are temporarily absent due to illness can continue to receive support until they have been absent for 28 weeks. At that point, a sick student becomes eligible for sickness benefit. A student who withdraws from his or her course, for whatever reason, is ineligible to receive assistance through the student support system and becomes subject to the arrangements under benefits system.

  Many further education students receive financial support from the bursary award scheme but there is no specific provision for students absent due to illness. Students experiencing particular financial difficulties can apply for assistance to the Access Fund operated by the Colleges. Generally there are no financial repercussions for short-term absences but, since bursaries are discretionary awards, each case is judged on its own merits. Where a student is on long-term sick leave the college will advise the student whether he or she should continue the course. If the student withdraws, the bursary is stopped and, if unemployed, the student reverts back to the benefits system for support.

Employment

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what is the number of people in each parliamentary constituency in Scotland currently enrolled in each of the following New Deal options: (a) full-time education and training; (b) voluntary sector, and (c) the environmental task force.

Henry McLeish: Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government, which therefore takes the lead on the funding and delivery of the New Deal throughout Great Britain, although in close consultation with its partners, including the Scottish Executive. Many partner organisations at local level also provide New Deal services under contract or provide funds and other resources, including training funds, to enhance the quality of New Deal in their areas. The public and voluntary sector organisations which contribute to the New Deal in this way fall within the remit of the Scottish Executive.

  Information is not available on a constituency basis. The table below shows the numbers in Scotland by Unit of Delivery enrolled (end May figures) in each of the following New Deal options: a) full-time education and training; b) voluntary sector, and c) the Environment Task Force.

  

Unit of Delivery 

Full Time Education/Training 


Voluntary Sector 


Environment Task Force 



Ayrshire 

127 


91 


68 



Borders 

20 


17 


18 



Dumfries and Galloway 

89 


21 


27 



Edinburgh, East and Mid Lothian 

123 


69 


80 



Forth Valley 

132 


75 


66 



Glasgow 

459 


180 


151 



Grampian 

62 


15 


15 



Inverness and Nairn 

14 


8 


12 



Lanarkshire 

278 


123 


168 



Renfrewshire 

93 


68 


68 



Tayside 

164 


65 


96 



Western Isles 

16 


6 


7 



Dunbarton 

81 


26 


53 



Fife 

196 


56 


76 



Moray, Strathspey and Badenoch 

19 


15 


12 



West Lothian 

31 


22 


22 



Argyll and The Islands 

11 


11 


1 



Caithness and Sutherland 

7 


6 


8 



Lochaber 

4 


1 


0 



Orkney 

5 


0 


3 



Ross and Cromarty 

17 


4 


9 



Shetland 

4 


0 


0 



Skye and Lochalsh 

5 


0 


0

Employment

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to make representations to Her Majesty’s Government proposing that the payment of £15.38 per week for 6 months to those on the New Deal’s full-time education and training option in Scotland be reviewed, and that those people be paid the equivalent to those on the voluntary or environmental task force option.

Henry McLeish: The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with United Kingdom Ministers and Departments (including the Department of Education and Employment) on a wide range of issues including the New Deal for Young People.

Employment

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs have been created in Cambuslang Investment Park since 1974.

Henry McLeish: As this is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise, I will ask the Chairman of that organisation to write to you.

Equal Opportunities

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it will make to Her Majesty’s Government with regard to expanding supportive employment opportunities for blind and disabled people in Scotland.

Henry McLeish: The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with United Kingdom Government Ministers and Departments, including the Department for Education and Employment, on a wide range of issues, including supported employment.

Health

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been admitted to (a) Crosshouse Hospital and (b) Ayr Hospital in each year since 1995 (counting patients only once if they have had multiple appointments).

Susan Deacon: The information available on the number of patients admitted to Crosshouse and Ayr Hospital by year of admission, April 1994-March 1998 is provided in the table.

  Numbers of patients1 admitted to Crosshouse Hospital and Ayr Hospital by year of admission, April 1994-March 1998

  

 

Year Ending 31 March 

  



 

1995 


1996 


1997 


1998 




Crosshouse Hospital 


26374 


26387 


26575 


27252 




Ayr Hospital 


16306 


19086 


22485 


23495 




  1 Patients are counted a maximum of once for each hospital in each year

  Source: ISD Medical Record Linkage

Health

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to assist the charity Epilepsy Bereaved in carrying out a national sentinel audit into epilepsy related deaths in Scotland.

Margaret Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what its view on funding of a Scottish sentinel audit into epilepsy related deaths is.

Susan Deacon: The Scottish Executive are proposing to fund a bid by the charity Epilepsy Bereaved to extend the national sentinel audit they are undertaking into epilepsy deaths in England, to cover cases of epilepsy related deaths in Scotland.

Housing

Ben Wallace (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it can take to alleviate the high costs many households are being required to incur in order to repair failures in old septic tank soakaways, given that many of these were part-constructed by local authorities, and whether it will implement any of these measures.

Ms Wendy Alexander: Meeting the costs of any repairs required is a matter for the householder in the first instance. Assistance may be available in some circumstances from the improvement and repairs grant scheme. The scheme is administered by the local authorities, and the resources available for it are limited. There are no plans at present to introduce further measures.

Interconnector

Alex Fergusson (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive in the light of recent changes in political and economic circumstances, whether it intends that the decision to construct the Scotland to Northern Ireland interconnector be subject to debate within the Parliament.

Henry McLeish: Consent for the construction of the Interconnector was granted in 1997. The decision having been made there is no statutory basis on which it can be reviewed. Accordingly I have no plans to debate this topic at present.

Justice

Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it proposes to alter the jurisdiction limits in the Sheriff Court in civil actions.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Lord Advocate, who then had policy responsibility for such matters, issued a Consultation Paper, in July 1998 which sought views on a range of possible increases in the jurisdiction limits in the Sheriff Court; an option of forum being provided to litigants wishing to raise personal injury actions for sums falling within the small claims limit and the provision of an additional tier of expenses for small claims exceeding £750.

  Following extensive consultation and having considered the responses to the Consultation Paper, I have decided to lay before the Scottish Parliament orders that:-

  

¨ increase 

the small claim limit to £1,500;
¨ increase 

each of the privative jurisdiction of the sheriff court 

and the summary cause limit to £5,000;
¨ add 

personal injuries actions to the category of actions excluded 

from the small claim procedure;
¨ assuming 

that Parliament accepts the recommendation to increase the small 

claim limit, increase the present expenses limit of £75 for small 

claims up to £750 and to £100 for small claims up to £1,000;
¨ where 

the value of the claim exceeds £1,000, limits the expenses to 

10% of the sum awarded; and
¨ provide 

that no expenses are to be payable for claims up to £200.



  The appropriate Orders which require to be approved by affirmative resolution of the Scottish Parliament will be brought forward when the Parliamentary timetable permits.

Local Government

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what is the expenditure by each local export partnership for each of the past two financial years and what are their budgets for the current financial year.

Henry McLeish: Local Export Partnerships comprise normally of Local Enterprise Companies, Local Authorities and Chambers of Commerce and these constituent bodies provide all funding. There are no details of funding, expenditure or budgets held centrally.

Local Government

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there will be any implications for local authorities as both purchasers and providers of services when the Competition Act 1998 comes into force next year, and if so, what the implications will be.

Henry McLeish: The Competition Act 1988 applies to all undertakings engaged in economic activities whatever their legal status. Local authorities which engage in commercial or economic activities relating to goods or services will be covered by the provisions of the Act as will those businesses which provide goods and services to local authorities and their activities will therefore equally be subject to the prohibitions in the Act. Competition being a reserved matter, the Act will be enforced throughout the UK by the Director General of Fair Trading who has made contact with all local authorities and is undertaking an education programme to ensure that their staff are equipped to detect cartels and anti-competitive practices which may operate in their areas of activity.

Local Government

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether rates relief to rural post offices is universally and uniformly applied by all local authorities in Scotland.

Mr Jack McConnell: Since April 1998, rural post offices benefit from mandatory rates relief of 50% if they meet the terms of the Village Shops Rate Relief Scheme. Each council also has discretion to give full relief on the remaining 50%. No data are yet available on the extent to which councils are using this discretion.

Public Appointments

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the guidelines governing public appointments in Scotland.

Donald Dewar: Scottish Ministers are committed to ensuring that appointments to Scottish public bodies are subject to independent scrutiny and conform to the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ guidance. The Commissioner keeps the guidance under constant review.

Recycling

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to promote research into the development of products made from recyclable waste.

Sarah Boyack: We are committed to increasing recycling where it provides benefits by saving natural resources, reducing energy consumption and waste disposal, and cutting costs to business.

  On 18 August, I was pleased to launch a new project, REMADE, the aim of which is to research and demonstrate the potential value of materials from recycled waste in Scotland. The £1 million three year market development programme is to be funded jointly by The Scottish Executive, Local Authorities, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Enterprise, Valpak Ltd and landfill tax credits (from Haulwaste and Shanks Waste Solutions). It is intended that the programme will be led by Caledonian Shanks Centre for Waste Management, a part of Glasgow Caledonian University.

Scottish Executive

David McLetchie (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the First Minister sees all papers prepared for other members of the Scottish Executive, and if not, what criteria determine the papers which are copied to him.

Donald Dewar: The Scottish Executive operates on the basis of collective responsibility in the manner described in Partnership for Scotland . This means that all the business of the Executive must be handled with an appropriate degree of consultation and discussion. The Executive has recently published A Guide to Collective Decision-making in the Scottish Executive which provides detailed guidance for officials on arrangements for supporting collective decision-making.

Sport

Bristow Muldoon (Livingston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to allocate resources to the development of youth football, and if so, how it intends to allocate these resources.

Rhona Brankin: The Scottish Executive plans to contribute £1 million towards the development of a network of football academies. The academies will seek to attract the most talented youngsters from local communities with the aim of growing a future generation of Scottish stars. This initiative has been welcomed by representatives of the SFA, the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Professional Footballers Association.

  As Minister for Sport in the Scottish Executive I am now taking this initiative forward and I chaired the inaugural meeting of the Football Partnership on 14 June at McDiarmid Park, Perth. The Partnership includes representatives from the SFA, the SPL, the SFL, the SPFA, sportscotland, the Scottish Institute of Sport, the Football Trust and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. The Partnership agreed that a Taskforce of officials under the Chairmanship of Eamonn Bannon (member of sportscotland) should be set up to draw up detailed proposals for consideration by the Partnership before the end of this year.

  In addition sportscotland continues to make a significant investment in the development of youth football through a variety of initiatives that include Team Sport Scotland, the Governing Body Sports Development Programme, the National Coach Support Programme and the Talented Athlete Programme. These initiatives and more add up to a total investment of £326,000 for 1999-2000.

Telecommunications

Brian Adam (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made or intends to make to Her Majesty’s Government regarding British Telecom’s proposed plans in Scotland for new high speed data services, technically known as asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), and whether it will seek to encourage their installation in North East Scotland as part of their initial introduction.

Henry McLeish: The question of the roll-out of high speed data services such as ADSL is a commercial matter for BT. However, OFTEL is currently consulting on the issue of access to bandwidth in general, and my officials intend to respond, drawing the regulator’s attention to the needs of rural and remote areas.

Tourism

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive to specify how many tourist businesses there are in Scotland, whether it foresees a reduction in that number, and if so, for what reasons.

Henry McLeish: It is estimated that there are around 27,000 businesses in Scotland engaged in tourism and tourist related activities. I have no reason to believe that the number will reduce. The world tourism industry is growing. We are preparing a new strategy that will aim to make the tourism sector in Scotland more competitive and therefore increase business.

Tourism

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to study the impact of Scottish film locations as a means of promoting tourism in Scotland.

Henry McLeish: The Scottish Tourism Co-ordinating Group has issued guidelines to help the tourism industry identify business and marketing opportunities and to capitalise on the film tourism market. I will arrange for copies to be placed in the Parliament’s library. I will ask the Chairman of the Scottish Tourist Board to provide you with details of the Board’s marketing activity associated with films and film locations and I will arrange for a copy of his reply to be placed in the library also.

Transport

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the most up to date plans and timescales are for the upgrading of the A8000.

Sarah Boyack: Proposals for an off-line upgrading of the A8000 to dual motorway standard are being considered in the Strategic Roads Review. I plan to report to Parliament on the Review shortly.